Blast hits Beirut suburb

Beirut: A senior intelligence officer investigating killings largely blamed on Syria was slain along with three other people in a car bombing in the Lebanese capital on Friday, security officials said.

Captain Wissam Eid, 31, a member of the Internal Security Forces (ISF), and his bodyguard were among those killed, a security official said. He said 38 other people were wounded, with nine taken to hospital.

"Eid was a key member of the ISF and was involved in many investigations concerning bombings in Lebanon," the official said. "He was involved in sensitive probes and this is a major loss for us."

Many of the bombings over the past three years have been blamed by Lebanon's Western-backed parliamentary majority on neighbouring Syria, a charge denied by Damascus.

Syria condemned the killing and blamed "Lebanon's enemies". A government statement cited a Syrian official as "condemning the attack perpetrated this morning in Beirut and affirming that it aimed at Lebanon's security and stability."

General Ashraf Rifi, head of the ISF and who was at the site of the blast in a Christian suburb of Beirut, said the car bomb was yet another attempt at destabilising the country. "This is a message to the Internal Security Forces following the message sent to the army in December when General Francois Al Haj was killed in a car bomb," Rifi told reporters.

"This will not deter us from our mission to protect the country and ensure security." The United States, Britain, France, Egypt and other countries also denounced the attack.